As summer comes to a close, local astronomers and sky watchers have enjoyed some rare and interesting planetary displays. 89.1 WEMU's Lisa Barry talks with local amateur astronomer and member of the University of Michigan "Lowbrow Astronomers" group, Dr. Brian Ottum.

This year, Mars will be the closest its been to Earth in 15 years. Jupiter and Saturn will also be visible in the evening sky. All these will be visible, and there will be much more to see and do when the annual "Astronomy at the Beach" event is held Friday and Saturday, September 14 and 15th at the Island Lake State Recreation Area in Brighton. There will be dozens of telescopes available for sky viewing and plenty of activities for the whole family.

Dr. Ottum also talks about some rare audio recently obtained of two black holes colliding in space. The event was captured with a LIGO telescope and resulted in a Nobel Prize in physics for the astronomy team in 2017.
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— Lisa Barry is the host of All Things Considered on WEMU. You can contact Lisa at 734.487.3363, on Twitter @LisaWEMU, or email her at lbarryma@emich.edu